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Grumpy Wizard
United States
Приєднався 20 січ 2020
I talk about classic fantasy role-playing games, dark fantasy fiction, heavy metal music and a storyworld I am building for games and novels. I publish every week at the Grumpy Wizard Blog and have a newsletter than I send out once a month.
Grumpy Wizard Dev-Vlog 4: Finding my Audience
Creating an audience was one of the first things I decided was very important to do before I even thought about trying to sell something. I have seen some zines and even games have successful launches without trying to build a following first but not often.
This video is about my approach to "finding" my audience and why that is such an important distinction... at least for me.
grumpywizard.home.blog/
This video is about my approach to "finding" my audience and why that is such an important distinction... at least for me.
grumpywizard.home.blog/
Переглядів: 170
Відео
What are my goals for an OSR sandbox campaign?
Переглядів 2,1 тис.7 місяців тому
It is useful to have a clear ideal of the experience I'm trying to create before I start designing anything I need for a game. Whether it is a non-player character, a monster, an encounter, adventure or a whole campaign, I start with what I want the experience to be like. After running many campaigns, I've learned what I like my sandbox campaign to be like. The original fantasy role-playing gam...
The best thing about RPGs are the connections.
Переглядів 1769 місяців тому
I got to hang out with my pal Jeff Jones of @rpgramblings896 podcast. I've been a guest on his show several times and it was my pleasure to ask him a question for a change. We were both low on energy by this point in the convention after three days of gaming. No matter because Jeff gives me a great answer to the question, "What is your favorite thing about role-playing games?"
What's Jason Hobbs' favorite thing about RPGs?
Переглядів 1089 місяців тому
I had a great time hanging out at the Hobbs & Friends booth at Gamehole Con X. I met a lot of cool guys and had a lot of laughs. In this short video I talk to Hobbs about one of the things we both enjoy the most about gaming. The people! www.youtube.com/@UCzcmLPbm3yPW7OxHMcIhPEA
What Makes Tabletop RPGs Special?
Переглядів 9210 місяців тому
Viktor spoke with me at Gamehole Con X (2023) about his favorite thing about tabletop role playing games.
What is your favorite thing about tabletop RPGs?
Переглядів 9410 місяців тому
I had a great time at Gamehole Con 2023 in Madison Wisconsin. I had the pleasure spending some time with Dmitri talking about RPGs. We met at a seminar given by Marc Miller about the classic sci fi game Traveller. It was great to talk to Dmitri about Traveller and gaming. He was kind enough to let me film him for my series of one question interviews.
What criteria makes for an adventure worth writing?
Переглядів 210Рік тому
Paul and I were both players in an all wizard B/X game at North Texas RPG convention and got to talking about old timey gaming. He pulled out an Judges Guild module for adventuring in the Abyss. He had written it while he was in collage back in the 1970s and has written a line of sequels to further develop it. He is retired, travels the country in an RV, writes new adventures as a hobby. He's i...
How does Ben Barsh decide which idea to work on?
Переглядів 92Рік тому
Game designers always have more ideas than they have time. How does Ben Barsh of Pacesetter Games decide which idea is worth his time and energy? I had a good time talking to Ben and hanging out with him at NTRPG Con. He may be young but he's been in the game business for a long time. He's been going to conventions with his dad and running games for his friends since he was a wee lad. Ben knows...
How does Nord Games choose a project to work on?
Переглядів 77Рік тому
I greatly enjoyed talking to Chris Haskins of Nord Games while at North Texas RPG Con. He's a super nice guy and tells great stories. I was introduced to him Wednesday evening before the convention and immediately recognized he is a very creative person. He has a lot of interesting ideas and a clear understanding of what makes for great gaming. He was very generous with his time and allowed me ...
How do Jacob and Donny of Swordfish Islands pick a project?
Переглядів 179Рік тому
Game designers and writers have more ideas than they have time and resources. Swordfish Islands has published some projects that are truly unique. I asked Jacob and Donny of Swordfish Islands how they winnow the best ideas and decide on a what project to work on. shop.swordfishislands.com/
How does Courtney Campbell pick his next project?
Переглядів 193Рік тому
I spoke with Courtney Campbell of Hack and Slash Publishing about how he decides what the next project will be. I've been reading his blog for years. He has been one of the biggest influences on the way I think about and run tabletop role-playing games. I carry his book on social encounters and NPCs as part of my game master kit when ever I run a game session. His Negative Space Trilogy is high...
How does Stefan Pokorny decide what ideas to develop?
Переглядів 133Рік тому
I asked Stefan Pokorny of Dwarven Forge how he decides which ideas are worth spending time and resources to develop. Creative people always have ideas but implementing them is where the rubber meets the road. How does the highly accomplished founder of the biggest gaming terrain company in the business decide what the next project should be? www.youtube.com/@DwarvenForgeOfficial dwarvenforge.co...
I ditched my day job to self-publish OSR games and novels : Dev-Vlog #3
Переглядів 639Рік тому
I finally got around to making another video documenting my experience of creating a small publishing/media company. Anyone who runs a small gaming or publishing venture will tell you that this is hard and not optimal from a financially standpoint. I'd be better off getting a hair cut and a real job. No thanks. In this video, I talk about why I decided to quit my day job despite the fact that i...
The Key Ingredients of A Fantasy Sandbox RPG Campaign
Переглядів 7 тис.Рік тому
Online D&D "experts" who have never experienced a well constructed sandbox campaign state the structure is boring and sandbox campaigns fall apart quickly. Those DMs are missing key ingredients in their sandbox. There are a lot of moving parts in a proper sandbox but there are four basic ingredients that are required. If you don't have these, your sandbox will be boring, bland, and, fall apart ...
Expert Tips for RPG Adventure Creation
Переглядів 2,5 тис.Рік тому
Expert Tips for RPG Adventure Creation
How do you design encounters for tabletop roleplaying games?
Переглядів 2,2 тис.Рік тому
How do you design encounters for tabletop roleplaying games?
A Key Concept That You Need to Run OSR Games!
Переглядів 31 тис.2 роки тому
A Key Concept That You Need to Run OSR Games!
Has your favorite tabletop RPG publisher sold out to 5E mania?
Переглядів 1,6 тис.2 роки тому
Has your favorite tabletop RPG publisher sold out to 5E mania?
Dev. Vlog #1: What the hell am I doing?
Переглядів 3083 роки тому
Dev. Vlog #1: What the hell am I doing?
"Because those specific problems had known solutions, because Gary and Dave had played a bunch of board games and miniatures war-games they had already solved the ways that were satisfactory to them about how to resolve these issues." The idea that the rules that the guys in the 1970s deemed worthy of codifying were such because they had already been solved but that later solving of problems by subsequent gamers (things like skill systems started to show up as early as the 80's, as I'm sure you know) really speaks to the revisionism and romanticism of the OSR of recent years (I was a fan of the OSR stuff in its early days). The ridiculous extreme of an example of throwing a rock down a well or "search rules every time a player checks a room" or constantly asking for ability score checks exaggerates and assumes what some more recent games actually expect. People basically stopped reading DMGs after the year 2000 and its a shame because, especially in 3rd edition (the most misunderstood of them all), the DMG is actually very heavy handed about a lot of the stuff that the OSR preaches. Skill checks can *aid* in your chances of doing something AFTER you've already explained what you're doing and how you're doing it. Some people like the actual game part of the game rather than everything being make believe outside of spell casting, AC, hit points and movement rates. I like dungeon crawling, and dungeon crawling can be super rewarding when its based in various rules that engage with each other and a procedural approach. Engaging with rules systems and seeing the results unfold at the table, especially as they relate to your character can be super interesting, exciting, weird and makes for great immersion. AD&D 1e is one of my favorite games, and I really appreciate some OSR games, I've been playing for long time, but the OSR narrative, rules-light stuff, the revisionism, the fetish of re-enacting a certain period of time in a way that we mostly only imagine a handful of people (who are lucky enough to have been documented) played is misdirected and its out of control lately. Hell, the original west marches game (a play style that many OSR, rules-light, open table, sandbox etc. people hold in high esteem) was done in 3rd edition, and that original DM makes it a point to praise the mechanics and strengths of the 3.0 ruleset for enabling that game to be as successful as it was. Sometime in the mid-2000's the unfortunately WotC message boards and crazy min-maxers became the loudest voice and ended up driving the entire direction of the industry for the following two decades (WotC over pivoting with 4e to be as far away as the late 3.5 style as they could, the OSR emerging out of a reaction against late 3.5 era play), but really the majority of people playing late 2, 3.0, 3.5 etc were just having a grand old time playing normal fantasy campaigns at home and enjoying the strong rulesets.
Keep old school content alive! /sub
Great advices and video! Excellent recap at the end, inspiring! What is your top 3 of Fantasy Sandbox RPG Campaigns?
For me, the only struggle is with how easy it is for player characters to get killed. They don't get enough hit points at Level 1 to make it very far. That being said, the beauty of OSR games is that (at least when it comes to White Box FMAG) they're ridiculously easy to homebrew new rules and content for.
I find your comparison to 4e interesting. That's kind of the version that brought me back around to OSR. Basically for my D&D path I dabbled in AD&D2e then really played in 3.5 and then DMed in 4e, played but didn't really like 5e, played OSE, DMed a srtipped down OSE like version of 4e and now am on to castle and crusades. Once I got good enough to understand how 4e worked I was able to strip away more and more of the rails. Like how the level bonus serves no purpose other than to help the DM figure out what monsters to throw at the party. On the other side the class powers help players figure out what they can do with their actions instead of just attack, attack, move, attack. I still have a soft spot for 4e (obviously) but I can say it's a D&D trainer without condescension. For gamers new to D&D I think it can be a good spot to start off from. Not everyone does well from being thrown into the deepend of the pool. Maybe they're not used to using their imagination in that way. But yeah, open world is definitely moer fun and actually easier to run as DM once you have all the skills and tools in place.
A truly phenomenal video, wise wizard. I've been a sandbox enthusiast for years, but this video created an excellent checklist that even I can utilize to more quickly cover my bases.
Thank you!
Great tips would love so see some oldschool examples of this as well.
More of this! Show us your notebooks and past campaigns! Fantastic-
Huh, I already was doing something like this but never had a good way to put it into words. It's just something my dm did and I picked up on
i loved 4e beacuse all i needed was a solid closed system, and then the players and GM could do whatever they want with the open stuff
Glad I found you! Enjoying your videos which I find very valuable.
Thanks!
So if I'm not mistaken, what you mean by "open system" is relying on things beyond "just roll a skill check"? I played Basic D&D in 1991 and 1e AD&D before going to 2e and then 3.x, and I'm looking at various OSR rules but thus far haven't found any that really appeal (just reminding me of the stuff I didn't like, like how cheap character survivability is). But one thing I like about OSR compared to say 5e or Pathfinder is the lack of "Make me an X check" rules, instead being more of a "Okay that sounds good" from the DM, although I can see some reasons why the DM would ask for a skill check (bluffing a guard, for example, although in this case the CHA check wouldn't be to see if it worked, but if the guard realizes he's been tricked before the PC can get away)
That's the basic idea. It probably seems fairly obvious having played back in the 90's cause that's just how we played.
I was a little distracted before and have a moment now. It is partly about focusing on what's going on in the setting instead of the mechanisms of the game. However, it is also about bringing in elements that aren't explicitly in the game rules. A lot of more contemporary games discourage players and game masters from doing anything that are not in the rules or can't be resolved using the existing mechanisms. Others have very broad universal mechanisms that can be applied to most anything. There is a bit of a problem with that if the game master accepts whatever nonsense the players suggest and just apply an existing ability or skill to roll. For me, the major part of what I called "open system" in this video is that I prefer a game that encourages the players to spontaneously come up with an idea that is plausible and avoids a purely mechanistic approach. "What if I drink a strength potion, carry the anvil to the balcony, and drop it on the guy when he comes out the door of the inn?" There are no rules for that in the game but a game master with a basic understanding of gravity could make a ruling about the likelihood of the anvil hitting the guy, and the probability of it killing him if it does. To me, that's the more important element of "open system" thinking .
FYI, your blog comes up "Failed to open page" on both Safari and Chrome. Maybe it's just me but you might want to check into it if your number of visitors is lower than usual.
MY GOD! That BEARD!!!... I want it
What you call open system is the reason for me to play and run RPGs. Otherwise I would be playing Board Games or Video Games.
In my opinion, it is what differentiates RPGs from those other game forms.
If you think of it as "running" a game, you'll probably get a lot of closed-system results.
Certainly. Those results will be far more unpredictable and less constrained than when thinking of a game as a story. Stories have fixed intentions and compulsory scenes and beats that must be hit in order for the story to fit the genre the story sits in and to have the meaning the storyteller intends. If a storyteller wants a heroic story then the scenes must follow down a heroic sequence. The way I run my campaigns, I have NO set outcome in mind. The choices of the players, the rules applied where they apply and a fair and reasonable adjudication when they don't (open system) allows for a vast range of possibilities that a referee "telling their story" can not even begin to imagine.
They say that if you truly understand a concept, you can explain it simply. You clearly don't understand the concepts you're trying to discuss.
This is video is rough. I've been thinking about remaking it.
You are a positive force man! I hope to see you at another Gamehole Con in October.
I'm looking forward to it!
Enjoyed the video. I thought your definition of your 'audience', a great one. Building relationships. Friendships. That's the currency I prefer myself. Best of luck!
Thanks!
This was really helpful information! I am staring to get a grasp on what OSR really means and should feel like.
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad its helpful.
I've been watching the odd video here and there, but this video really got me feeling this is a channel to follow. Being more about the positive than the negative. Focus on Contributing and growing the "big pot of creativity" that I think Michael Moorcock called it. Not to mention the idea that "The people I want to find are out there, we just haven't connected yet." is a huge one! (Not to mention that Classical Fantasy/S&S fiction, Metal music and some History makes for great ingredients!)
Thank you. I hope you find something useful.
holy shit you look like a guy that plays OSR games. fully a compliment. that bear is magnificent.
Thanks!
Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us, grumpy wizard.
Thanks. What little wisdom I might have is the result of a great deal of foolishness biting me in the ass over the years.
Just subscribed. Good stuff. I have the same opinion about developing a sandbox. Looking forward to your other videos.
Thanks! Long time fan of your work. I have used some of your micro adventures in my sandbox games.
@@grumpy_wizard_blog that's great to hear. I hope they served you well. We're kinda talking about this campaign building tonight with Joe the lawyer in his channel. I found your channel because I was doing some research.
Congrats on having committed players! Holy cow 10 sessions to get out of the intro? I’ve never had a campaign last more than 7 sessions just due to scheduling and real life. How often are you playing/scheduling games a month? Love the advice but seems unrealistic.
I'm between campaigns at the moment so play is little more sporadic and the group is taking turns DMing at the moment. The last two campaigns were scheduled for weekly games which we mostly stuck to. We didn't play every week but we probably got 40 sessions or more in the year. I don't expect everyone to be there every week and they don't have to be. Sometimes we just handwave the reason the character wasn't there (had the flu and couldn't adventure) but I prefer to use downtime mechanisms so that players can miss a few weeks and still be involved in the game. grumpywizard.home.blog/2022/02/17/player-character-continuity-is-not-a-big-deal/
@@grumpy_wizard_blog yeah again then congrats, you have a rare thing - like I said, I've never had ANY campaign last more 7 total sessions and to hear you've had times where you had 40 of the same campaign in a year? Crazy! You have a great problem! Congrats again.
@@deathbare5306 Another approach to getting regular game group is to run shorter sessions that are on a normal week night. Like two or three hours so it isn't a huge commitment and a nice break in the middle of the week. That sort of thing can be easier to arrange if you are playing online. Most people are able to play for 2 hours on Wednesday night when the would normally just be watching TV or scrolling on their phone.
Glad I got this in my feed. I've been running sandbox campaigns exclusively for over a decade now and I HARD agree on pretty much everything you said. DMing is my preferred role, and much of my spare time is spent writing campaign cores, making up NPCs, magic items, monsters, spells and abilities. Many of those end up filtering into the sandboxes over the years, and it all creates such a deep persistent world that grows into its own personality. Player direction though is really the driving force, and you hit the nail on the head by saying that they will more actively pursue their own goals. Subbed!
Thank you for the comment! It's good to hear that other DM's have had similar experiences.
I love your emphasis on pragmatic advice for realistic situations, instead of a highly marketable, can-do attitude.
Thanks. I think it is a lot more helpful to address the actual situation game masters find themselves in than it is to just tell gamers "You got this!"
Player annoyances. I love it! Nothing drives player investment more. Have a like and a sub, sir.
Thanks!
*CHA'ALT*
Nice: succinct, to the point. Not a wasted word.
Thanks!
your advice is gold! I love your blog and your article "your story sucks".
Thanks!
How do you tend to solicit player goals and objectives? At the table during session? At the end of a session? In between sessions? I’m curious how that tends to work out for you.
Great question. It's a mix. Sometimes I just ask what players want at the end of the session if they just finished clearing a location or killing off an enemy and we're at a natural pause. Sometimes players will tell me an idea they had in the shower between sessions. My biggest source of information is the questions players are asking me and the conversations they have with each other during the session. If a player wants to know "Where can we buy 100 gallons of Greek Fire?" "How much would it cost us to buy a ship?" "How many mules would it take to haul the gold from a dragon lair?" or if one player says to another, "Can you make a scroll of protection vs undead?" I make a note and use that to develop more material for the next session or make a connection to an existing NPC, faction or sentient monster or location.
This is just what the doctor ordered. Thanks for this video man
You're welcome. I'm glad you found it helpful.
Excellent advice! Thank you for the video. I've recently started DMing Shadowdark and it's been a ton of fun, but a bit of an adjustment coming from modern systems like 5e, Monster of the Week, Cyberpunk, etc. This was the advice I needed to fully get my head around it.
Thanks! I have a number of essays on my blog you might find helpful as well.
I like the refrain best: player-driven adventure objectives.
For me, it makes running a campaign much easier.
Whatever happened to the D23 challenge? Tweleve levels of dungeons crawling certainly seems like a good basis for a sandbox. It's great to see you back btw, 12:38 I've had two campains go right up to 36th level, Mentzer basic rules. It does happen when you have no life.
I started it but didn't finish. The thing about the dungeon23 method is the exact opposite of my preferred method of creating adventures and campaigns. I create maps toward the end of my creative process. I think about the feeling I'm trying to create, the monsters, the types of traps and state of things when the PCs arrive on the scene, then I build everything else around that moment. I want my map (dungeon, campaign or otherwise) to fit the experience I'm going after.
Awesome video and advice Travis. One takeaway from this video is the concept of working with “pieces” in a sandbox. Clues, events, encounters, monsters, NPCs, objects, etc. that when put together, create a larger, clearer, picture. I experienced some of this with your Hogwater sessions and it is a fantastic way to weave depth and meaning into a sandbox over multiple sessions. Keep up the great work.
I like to break it down into pieces so that it is manageable. Working on each one individually and then integrating them together seems to work well for me.
I've just started building a sandbox and i must say, of all the content on the web, yours inspired me the most, I ended up reading all your blog. I sincerely hope you keep doing what you do, it's insightfull, well formulated, concise, and it's so amazing after watching dozens of videos of people juggling words without ever defining terms and making broad statements. Your approach is really conceptual and made me realise tons of stuff so fast ! I also relate to you on a personnal level, as someone that feels crippled by adhd and social anxiety you're really inspiring. Watching your first video I could feel that making video content wasn't naturally coming to you, that you had to fight yourself ! Thats inspiring too! Anyway, Good luck and thank you ! (Sorry for bad english)
I'm glad you find it helpful. I have a rough draft of a full write up on my process of how I build a sandbox. If you sign up for the monthly newsletter on my site you'll get a link to the archive where it is available. I have some scripts written up to turn it into a video series that I will be posting on UA-cam
Thanks ! Just signed up !
Very cool and useful stuff
Thanks!
That's a really cool perspective! This kind of long term view to sandbox campaigns is rarely discussed. Very insightful!
Thanks. I hope it's helpful. I games quite a while before I actually managed it. Once I ran one, it became my favorite style of play.
@@grumpy_wizard_blog Yeah! There's a lot to like. I like the idea that the game could be long lived, but at the same time I need it to be meaningful on the short term and to keep my inspiration fresh by surprising me as the GM with player driven shenanigans as well as randomly generated elements. My wish for this year is to get one of my games far enough that it opens into a real sandbox game.
Hey, hey! Welcome back! :D You've been missed.
Thank you. I've been neglecting my channel. Gotta get back in the saddle.
@@grumpy_wizard_blog, brother, you do you. It's a pleasure seeing your smiling face whenever the opportunity presents itself.
That's a really nice compliment. I appreciate it.
This is literally what I needed to hear. I was struggling trying to figure out how to run an old school version of D&D like they ran it back in the 70s. Hearing they had rules for combat because they knew how other games ran combat made so much sense to me. Everything else they were just making up on the fly. Your explanation on how they made it up and how I can too was eye opening. Thanks for the vid! S tier beard!
Thanks!
Very eye-opening. Thank you!
You're welcome!
This is good stuff! What I'd like to see more about, is improvising encounters based on the adventure and sandbox setting prep. Or rather how to prep adventures and the sandbox with improvising encounters in mind. What kind of tools you would recommend to have at the table for this for example? Thanks again!
Great request. I've been neglecting my channel for a while working on other stuff. Time to get back to it. A short response: The way I improvise is facilitated by how I build my sandbox. I make NPCs, factions, and major monsters the bulk of my work. Having active, ambitious, NPCs who are chasing their own desires, knowing their resources (minions, magic items, allies, knowledge) , and having a list of ideas about how they would respond to likely actions from PCs makes improv relatively simple. I just role-play the NPC. If I was a thieves guild master with a group of thieves, a lot of money, hide outs and safe houses, corrupt city watchmen on my payroll etc. what would I do about a party of adventurers messing up my business interests? From there it's just role-playing . Decide how the guild master responds and do that.
@@grumpy_wizard_blog That works. Pretty much as I see it. I'm trying to get a little bit more organized. Got me some index cards for NPCs. I'll try your idea if encounter index cards at some point as well. I'd be happy to see more videos like these! Some kind of compiled guide book of similarly concise advice would be fantastic! I got the Alexandrian's new book which is neat but I'd prefer something more OSR as well as less wordy 😁
Fantastic advice! Thank you!
You're welcome
@@grumpy_wizard_blog I'm watching this whole series of videos on sandbox, adventure and encounter design. It's pure gold! Will check out the blog as well.
Quite right. This creates a need for a high level of trust between the referee and the players. Some players want the closed system to "protect" them from GMs they do not trust, but that isn't actually possible.
It seem so fundamental and yet there are many game designers that believe the system can beat culture. That has never been my experience.
In short. If you play an ancient game without the 45 years of evolution of game design that we achieved, be ready to make shit up.
It's just a different approach. It's not for everyone. Some people feel the modern ruleset to be overly restrictive and constrains certain kinds of creativity. Different games for different people
This is GREAT!!!!! Some of this might be familiar to old hands, but I feel it's presented here with enough depth and breadth to push players and DMs a little bit further. Also, it's nice to see a video that gets right to the point without bunch of extra BS! Very well done!
Thank you!